Chapter 8: Extra Day
This was to be my "free day" in Dominica. American doesn't offer daily non-stops to or from here but they do have a non-stop on Saturday so that is the one I booked. So, rather than endure a problematic lengthy connection via either San Juan or Trinidad, I would wait a day and relax and reflect on what I learned about the place. But, my shin and hip and butt altered all of that back on Tuesday. Here are a couple of things that I would have been doing today--photos courtesy of my friends of earlier this week.
But since I promised to fill a certain number of chapters on this blog, I will do so with these musings.
English speaking Dominica is called "The Nature Island" because it is the "wildest" Caribbean island by far. Only 29 miles long and 16 miles across, formed by volcanoes, rugged and nearly impossible to walk unless one is on the water's edge or a formal trail. Christopher Columbus, after 'discovering' the place, reportedly "crumbled a piece of parchment roughly and threw it on the table. This, Columbus explained, is what Dominica looks like--completely covered with mountains with nary a flat spot." It is often, maybe usually, confused with the Spanish speaking Dominican Republic, half of the island of Hispaniola, 625 miles north of here.
The famous 200 degree "boiling lake" in Roseau Valley is a flooded volcanic fumarole--the opening from which hot sulfurous gases emerge--and requires three hours to reach on foot. The world's longest (4.1 miles) cable car system is under construction and should make it possible to ride above the forest to reach the lake--but not until the end of 2025 at the earliest.
The average high daily temperature runs from 75 to 78 degrees year round. It was hotter than that every day I was there. The rainy season begins in July and lasts through November. Financial transactions are carried out using either the East Caribbean dollar (XCD) or the US dollar (US$). Everything I did was in U.S. dollars.
Fewer than 75,000 people live here and, after a few days here, you begin to think that everybody knows everybody else by their first name.
Locals, I'm told, frequent the Emerald Pool, a favorite swimming hole in Morne Trois Pitons National Park fed by a 50-foot waterfall which, they say, is very very cold. A 50-foot waterfall is "nothing" I'm told as the larger ones here are four times as high. I was unable to make it there.
Kayakers traverse the Waitukubili Sea Trail. Hikers head for the rain forest. Some beaches are black sand--sand from lava. Everyone appreciates Dominica's almost universal description as one of the safest destinations in the entire Caribbean.
There are nine active volcanoes here. Rivers abound. Waterfalls proliferate. The government is planning to accelerate the underdeveloped tourism sector. A new airport is scheduled to open in 2026. Cruise companies are planning to ferry a half-million visitors annually. Excursions for them will include visits to Wotten Waven, a mountain village, where cruisers can bathe in the waters of a hot sulfur spring and coat themselves in mud pools before rinsing off in waterfalls. I hope that doesn't spoil the place.
But that is in the future. Now, the island--when the Enchanted Princess cruise ship is not in port--hosts no more than 200 tourists a week. I was pushing it insofar as timing was concerned. The Caribbean hurricane season began on June 1, two weeks ago. Of importance to nobody other than B4 and me I discovered that Cunard's Queen Mary 2 will stop here in November and then again in December. Patrick let me know that there are days when not one or even two but as many as three ships are here. That is difficult for me to envision and I suspect the local population will soon grow tired of an influx as large as that. Not all cruise ship tourists are pleasant.
The scuba diving here is regarded as some of the best in the world. I met a couple from Naples, FL, who were out every day with all their scuba paraphernalia. Champagne Reef releases effervescent bubbles into the sea. Mark was headed there on one of his days after our dive adventure wound down. Warmer water adjacent to the volcanic vents are rife with barrel sponges, anemones, both soft and hard corals, a few turtles and hordes of colorful fish. Hopefully these attractions will remain unspoiled as the government created the Soufriere Scotts Head Marine Reserve along with one other marine reserve and three national parks. Morne Trois Pitons National Park hosts the aforementioned world's second largest boiling lake which is too hot for a swim and is regularly shrouded in vapor. It's an unpredictable spot--when the water levels drop it is considered unsafe to visit.
Not everything is nature based. The World Creole Music Festival happens here every October. Their independence day is in November, Carnival happens in February and there is a dive fest every July. Reminder: Hurricane season is June through October, peaking in September.
As of now, there are no big luxury hotels but that probably won't last. Intercontinental Hotels did flag a property here, the former Kempinski. There is a new property under construction near to where Patrick's vendor keeps their excursion vessels. Being the Caribbean, there is no telling how long it will take for that property to come on line.
I simply pray that the place finds the right balance between economic prosperity from tourism and environmental destruction because of it. Oh, and that they clean up and revitalize downtown Roseau.
